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Put the Brakes on the Summer Slide | Teaching Tolerance

School is over for most students throughout the United States, and kids are clambering to do anything except school-related stuff. Unfortunately, two months of no school also means two months of little or no reading for many students. Their reading progress slips not only for the two months of no school, but also for two months of academic growth.

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The school year is wrapping up, and most students won’t see the inside of a classroom for months. To kids, this means vacation, but to teachers it means lots of catch-up in the fall. According to a study by the John Hopkins’ Center for Summer Learning, without summer educational programs, the average student falls two months behind in his reading skills.

The “summer slide” disproportionately affects students living in poverty because their families may not have the access to summer educational opportunities available to more affluent families. This disparity goes a long way toward explaining the achievement gap that widens at each grade level. The good news is that there are easy, low-cost summer educational options out there—parents just need to be told about them.